Conventionally, in chairs used indoors, seats of vehicles or the like, things are often used in which a cushion material or flexible pad is installed on a part thereof to be touched by a human body, such as a seat surface or a back rest and then a surface thereof is covered with a skin material. Various structures are employed to fix the skin material. As structures capable of externally concealing while fixing the skin material, a structure is known in which a wire is arranged in a groove of a cushion material, clips are arrayed on an end edge of the skin material and then the clips are engaged with the wire, thereby fixing the skin material. Each of the clips has a chuck portion configured to be engaged to a locking end attached on the skin material and a hook portion configured to be caught and locked on the wire installed in the groove of the cushion. In order to facilitate an operation of catching the hook portion on the wire, hook portions having various shapes are known.
For example, a skin-material fixing clip disclosed in Patent Document 1 has a pair of leg portions formed to sandwich a wire therebetween. In a second embodiment of this invention, the pair of leg portions has a cut out portion and is arranged in a staggered manner in a wire direction while being at a short distance from each other in a length direction thereof, so that an actual space of a lead-in passage becomes wider. Therefore, the wire can be easily led into a locking space of the clip member, thereby allowing locking of the wire to be simply performed.
Also, a skin-material fixing clip disclosed in Patent Document 2 has a pair of upstanding pieces formed to interpose a wire therebetween and a hanging claw formed on an upper end of each of the upstanding pieces to clasp the wire. The pair of right and left upstanding pieces is provided to be stood up in a staggered manner while being at the same distance from each other as a width of the right and left upstanding pieces in an axial direction of the wire. A distance between the right and left upstanding pieces is formed to have a proper gap wider than at least a thickness of the wire. Therefore, in order to allow the wire to pass through the gap between the right and left hanging claws without pressing the hanging claws against the wire with a strong force, the clip is fitted onto the wire at an angle relative to the wire. Then, the clip is twisted so that the right and left hanging claws are arranged to be parallel to the wire and thus to clasp the wire. As a result, the clip can be easily mounted onto the wire without exerting a storing force thereon.
Further, skin-material fixing clips disclosed in Patent Documents 3 and 4 have a guide piece and a hook arranged side by side to oppose each other, and the guide piece is configured to be connected to a chuck portion and reach the vicinity of a distal end of the hook. As a wire is inserted between the guide piece and the hook, the guide piece is bent outward to widen a gap therebetween. When the wire is further inserted, the hook is caught and locked on the wire inserted in the gap.
An example of a skin-material fixing clip having such a guide piece is shown in FIG. 12. The skin-material fixing clip 1 shown in FIG. 12 has a locking section 2 constituted of a pair of locking claws configured to be engaged to a locking end attached on a skin material, a hook 3 configured to be caught and locked on a wire installed in a groove of a cushion material, and a guide piece 4 arranged side by side with the hook 3 to oppose the hook 3. The hook 3 has an extension portion 3a extending downward in the figure, a claw-shaped portion 3c configured to be bent from a distal end of the extension portion 3a in a left direction in the figure and then to be slightly inclined upward, and a flange portion 3b extending in a direction (right direction in FIG. 12) opposite to the extending direction of the claw-shaped portion 3c. The flange portion 3b has a distal end inclined downward, and a jig receiving portion 5 configured to allow a jig for separating the hook 3 from a wire 6 to be locked therein is provided on the distal end of the flange portion 3b. The guide piece 4 extends downward in the figure while being curved, so that the guide piece 4 passes by a lateral side of the claw-shaped portion 3c of the hook 3 and then reaches a lateral side of a location substantially corresponding to a lower end portion of the flange portion 3b. The skin-material fixing clip 1 is configured so that as the wire 6 is inserted between the guide piece 4 and the hook 3, the guide piece 4 is bent outward to widen a gap between the guide piece 4 and the hook 3 and then when the wire 6 is further inserted, the hook 3 is caught and locked on the wire 6 inserted in the gap.
In addition, as other configurations in which a hook is caught and locked on a wire, a configuration as described in Patent Document 5 is known in which a cantilever-shaped closing piece capable of being elastically deformed is provided in an opening portion provided above the hook.